Users of the World Wide Web (Surface web) may find it fascinating that WWW contains more than 1.25 billion websites with a User base of 3.7 Billion. What users do not know is that the surface web they are accessing is just a smaller fraction of a larger world. A significant part of internet aka dark web remains operative hosting 500 time more information than the surface web. Contrary to the 1 billion available documents on the surface web, the deep web comprises more than 550 billion individual documents.

Why is Deep Web infamous?

The deep web is mostly considered as a hub of illegal activities with an accumulation of 15 petabytes of data. Sometimes it often serves as a useful resource for many, while holding power to destroy the personal life of a User as well.

Currently, the deep web has more than 200.000 websites, and 95% of the contents are accessible without paying any subscription charges.

What is the deep web?

Before learning more about deep web, let us learn the basics behind it.

Users often use search engines while searching for a website, image or any other files. Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo etc. are some of the few popular search engines available on the surface web. A search engine uses programs known as web crawlers, spiders or robots to scan a new website available on the internet. The web crawlers ( Google bots for Google) scan each page of a link and store them in the Search Engine Database. The spider crawls from one page to another and keeps indexing all the data in the Search Engine Database.

Now a spider only last as long as it keeps crawling from one website to website finding links between the sites. If it doesn’t see any links between web pages, then it will self-delete itself. There are some web pages which exist but are not linked with each other, making them inaccessible by Search Engines. These web pages are known as the deep web. However, the deep web doesn’t include any pages and files but consists only of databases.

A database is a virtual place where Users stores several pieces of confidential information such access keys, passwords, secret information, personal files etc. Compare to the size of a dynamic website, the size of a database is significantly larger. As search engines cannot access those databases, those inaccessible parts of the data are termed as a property of deep web.

Some Basic Points to remember while accessing the Deep Web

Deep Web exists in a dynamic environment, which keeps changing at a rapid pace. As a reason why information available on the deep web often turns out outdated. The volatility of the Deep Web is also, what makes it more appealing to the Users. Besides, the myths and rumours associated with Deep Web often turn out as untrue as well.

Users who use desktop are advised to Use Tor browser to access the contents of Dark Web. Since this article is dedicated to Android Users, we will learn how to access the Deep Web using Android Devices.

Deep Web is often known as a fountain of drugs, porn, weapons and other illegal activities. However, one cannot ignore the fact that whatever information one gets about Deep Web is all coming from the press. The press has a reputation for covering only the titillating part of a section while snubbing a large part of it. In real, the Deep Web is so much more than just illegal activities. For example, The New York Strongbox allows people to create a code name and send files to Publication’s editorial team in a secure way.

As the purpose of using the Deep Web differs from person to person, we will not discuss anything that hints anyone to go to a particular place to access a specific service.

How To Access The Deep Web On Android

Users accessing Deep Web requires applications, which will connect them to the TOR network. They also need apps that conceals their Identity and online activities too. While there are many applications available on the internet, we will focus on Orbot and Orfox due to their reliability.

Apps Needed To Access The Deep Web On Android

1. Orbot

Orbot is a free proxy app that helps a User to use TOR to encrypt the internet traffic and hide Users IP address. Orbot’s main aim is to provide a gateway to other apps so that Users can securely access the Internet. Through Orbot, Users can protect their digital footprint by bouncing through a series of computers worldwide.

What is TOR?

TOR safeguards a User from any network surveillance. Users who need personal freedom and privacy to conduct their business activities and relationships confidentially need TOR that keeps them safe from traffic analysis.

2. Antivirus

Even though Orbot provides anonymity to Users, it doesn’t offer security from Virus and malware. So it’s better to use a reliable antivirus as well.

3. Orfox

Orfox is a highly secured web browser for android built with the same source code as the Tor Browser along with some more privacy modification as well. As it is an official product by the Tor Project, running Orfox is safe and secure.

Even the installation process of Orfox is natural, Orfox does need some additional work from the Users. To make the Orfox operative, Users need to install Orbot mandatorily. As Orbot connects to the TOR network, without Orbot, Orfox is useless.

4. VPN

Even using all the above measures, the location of the Users are still traceable. Most Background apps in Android keeps tracking the location and other data of the Users. No matter how much they disable the apps, they always keep popping up at regular intervals. The best way to block the location and data accessibility from those Background Apps is to use VPN service. A reliable VPN service like LimeVPN offers 100% online privacy for Internet Users. It also provides an encrypted Virtual private network through which Users can dodge regional restrictions and pose as a User from some other country.

Now Let’s Get Started

1. Download LimeVPN and configure it

Users need to subscribe to LimeVPN and use it to enhance their online privacy while accessing the deep web. LimeVPN offers unlimited bandwidth along with multiple locations at a very affordable cost. It also allows the Users to pick a country as a VPN from a list of more than 20 countries. After signup at LimeVPN, Users then have to move to the server list and Select ‘Onion Over VPN’ to connect themselves to the deep web.

2. Install Orbot and Orfox from Google Play

By far they are the most trustable and efficient app legally available in Google Play. Both the apps come free of cost and are ideal for both beginners as well as experienced users. Compare to other space-hogging apps, these apps hardly capture any internal space and also works flawlessly without any glitches or lags.

3. Check your antivirus status

It is crucial to check the status of the antivirus before ushering into the deep web. Users who don’t have antivirus can download them at Google Play by searching for ‘free antivirus’. While Users mostly prefers Kaspersky Internet Security or AVG, Users can still go for any decent antivirus with good ratings. Before taking any further step, Users must ensure their antivirus is active.

4. Connecting to TOR

After ensuring successful connection to antivirus, users must connect their device to a VPN server. Once done, connecting to TOR by Orbot will be a piece of cake. All Users have to do is boot up the Orbot App. After the app fully loaded, hit the start button. Upon establishing a successful connection to the TOR Network, Orbot will display a ‘successful’ message on the screen.

5. Switch to Orfox

Once the Users are connected to the Deep Web, they can use Orfox to access the deep web. To check the connections, Users can start by booting up some deep web search engines like ‘Not Evil’ and ‘Torch’. The best way to ensure connection at Orfox is to take a screenshot. Orfox does not let the users take a screenshot as its primary aim to ensure privacy and anonymity of the users at any cost.

More about the Deep Web

Every website at Deep Web need a TOR Network for accessibility and comes with a ‘.onion.’ top level domain. As Orbot and Orfox are two of the most reliable apps, most of the users prefer them. However, Users can also use other alternatives at the Google Play store. Just Searching TOR at Google Play will come up with a load of options.

1. Bookmarking Links

Before getting started at Deep Web, it’s essential for Users to bookmark a list of links by their categories. After all, without knowing the exact location in the deep web, it’s futile to connect to it. Users must pay some additional focus while bookmarking a link as finding an existing link twice in Deep Web is a hard task.

2. Organising Bookmarks

To make it more manageable, Users must organise their bookmarks into subfolders for better accessibility. The bookmarks list at deep web often piles up after a while but to save oneself from pain, Users must take some additional time while organising their bookmarks.

3. Never share personal details

The primary purpose of using the deep web is for complete anonymity, but the anonymity lapses the moment users share their name or their email address. While accessing the Deep Web, users might come across a lot of lucrative deals and attractive links, but all of them are basically traps.

Conclusion

We do not support any illegal or unethical activity in any possible way. The whole article is just for educational purposes. Users may find offensive materials but it’s advisable never to break the law. The dark web must be used only for personal purpose while staying in legal boundaries.

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Rachael Chapman

A Complete gamer and a Tech Geek. Brings out all her thoughts and love in writing blogs on IOT, software, technology etc